Various surgical procedures such as liposuction, reconstructive surgery, cancer surgery or emergency triage would tend to produce pre or post-operative swelling or heavy bleeding in one or more areas of the patient. The patient would find it difficult to utilize his or her bed garments, such as pajamas or nightgowns or other street clothes immediately after a surgical procedure or accidental wounding event. The patient would have one or more areas of bleeding or swelling preventing the patient's own garment from holding medically placed absorbent pads in the correct location and being sanitary. Additionally, these garments might also irritate, infect or contaminate any sutures used to close incisions or wounds of the patient after the surgery or accident. Further, conventional bed garments or street clothes are not produced of a material that is capable of compressing the skin to subcutaneous body parts. Additionally, the patient's conventional bed garments would make it difficult to open and close the garment for various reasons, such as the evacuation of bodily functions or changing the dressings and absorbent pads required after surgery.
A number of garments have been produced which try to address this particular problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,716, issued to Baum is directed to pants for recreational use and for physically infirmed or handicapped persons allowing the pants to be easily donned and removed. A releasable seam along the outside of each leg of these pants provided with separate hook and loop fastener segments would assist in allowing handicapped or infirmed persons to open and close the pants. Unfortunately, these side openings would cause the patient to twist and bend the body in order to open and close these releasable seams. The Baum closure places hooks and eyes below the Velcro.RTM. fastener corresponding to areas in which surgical sutures would be placed, thereby causing pain to the patient and difficulty applying and removing the garment.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,914, issued to Hesch illustrates an invalid garment having opening and closing slits placed in the back of the trouser leg. This slits are opened and closed utilizing Velcro.RTM. fasteners. The position of this opening would make it difficult for the patient to easily remove the garment without assistance from other individuals. The stiff Velcro.RTM. fastener utilized by Hesch would also make it difficult for a patient or health care provided, to apply and remove the garment as well as potentially cause pain when the patient physically moves. Furthermore, once the patient's swelling or bleeding begins to decrease, the garments described in the Baum and Hesch patents would cause the garment to become ill-fitting. This would result in the patient having to purchase a second, smaller garment.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,803, issued to Hyman describes a surgical chest dressing provided with two non-elastic and non-stretchable strips 30, 32 used as Velcro.RTM. fastening elements. However, as is true with respect to the Hesch invalid garment, the non-elastic nature of the strips would make it difficult for the patient to easily move in or size the garment, particularly immediately after surgery.
The E-Z-ON Medical Surgical Supply Company produces a number of compression garments. These garments, while including two side openings, utilize thick stiff zippers that force the patient to twist and turn to open and close the garment. The ends of the zippers include a sharp nylon construction scratching the skin of the patient. The patient needs to bend from the waist to the knee in order to fit the zipper parts together after bending and hooking hooks in order to reapply the garment. This operation must be done for both sides of the garment and is quite painful to swollen limbs. When the zipper is re-applied, it becomes stiff and thick and difficult to bend the body against it, thereby causing unnecessary pain to the healing sites. Sets of market produced hook-and-eyes are sewn onto the garment underneath the zipper. Hooks-and-eyes press against the skin at the surgical incision sites causing the patient undue pressure and pain. The thickness of the closure prevents rolling over in bed during recovery. Additionally, each of these garments would incorporate only a single size, thereby requiring the patient to purchase additional, smaller garments as the swelling subsides.